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Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was the First Lady of the United States from January 1961 to November 1963. Kennedy saw a restoration of the White House and had a televised tour of the residence aired during the second year of her tenure. Onassis was the elder daughter of John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. Her parents divorced in 1940. She graduated from George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She went on to work as an Inquiring Photographer for the Washington Times-Herald. Jacqueline wed John F. Kennedy in 1953. They had four children, two of which died in infancy. She became involved in his successful presidential campaign in 1960. On November 22, 1963, she was riding with her husband in a motorcade when his assassination took place. Following his funeral three days later, she and her children withdrew from public view and she married Aristotle Onassis five years later in 1968. Onassis had a career as a book editor for the last two decades of her life. Remembered for her contributions to the arts, preservation of historic architecture, her style, elegance and grace, she was a fashion icon. The clothing she wore at the time of her husband's death, that of a famous ensemble of pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat have become symbolic of the assassination and one of the lasting images of the 1960s. She remains one of the most popular First Ladies. Early life .]] Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born on July 28, 1929 in Southampton, New York to John Vernou Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee at Southampton Hospital. Bouvier was eleven when her mother married Hugh D. Auchincloss in June 1942. She and her sister did not attend the ceremony due to the wedding being arranged quickly and "wartime travel restrictions." She was engaged to John W. Husted, Jr. for three months while being a "Inquiring Photographer" for The Washington Times-Herald. She was required by the position to pose witty questions to random individuals on the street. Kennedy marriage Her engagement to Kennedy was announced on June 25, 1953. Bouvier married Kennedy on September 12, 1953. Over a year into their marriage, in 1955, Jacqueline suffered a miscarriage and in August 1956 gave birth to a stillborn daughter the couple planned to name Arabella. Her third pregnancy was in 1957 when she gave birth to a second daughter, Caroline. First Lady of the United States Her husband announced his candidacy for President of the United States in January 1960. He then launched a nationwide campaign, after which Jacqueline soon learned she was pregnant. This hampered her plans to have an active role, as she had been advised by doctors to stay at home due to her previous difficult pregnancies. Kennedy was active in her husband's campaign from Georgetown by being involved with the media. She made a few rare personal appearances as well. Jacqueline could be heard during the campaign speaking in Italian and Polish, already being fluent in Spanish and French. Her husband won the election against Richard Nixon narrowly on November 8, 1960. She gave birth to the couple's first son John F. Kennedy Jr two weeks later on November 25. Her husband's swearing in on January 20, 1961 made Kennedy the third youngest First Lady of the United States in history. She was behind both Frances Folsom Cleveland and Julia Gardiner Taylor, who were 21 and 24 at the time they became First Lady. Her first major act as First Lady was restoring the White House. She was dismayed to find little historic significance in the house during her pre-inauguration tour of the White House, the rooms in particular being furnished with pieces that were both undistinguished and in her view lacked a sense of history. She started trying to return the house to a historical living space on her first day in residence and was helped by Sister Parish in making the family quarters attractive and suitable for family life. When she almost exhausted the funds appropriated for the effort, Kennedy created a fine arts committee to both oversee and fund the restoration process and asked for the advice of early American furniture expert Henry du Pont. Kennedy had a tour of the White House with Charles Collingwood of CBS News on February 14, 1962. She oversaw the redesigning of the White House Rose Garden and the East Garden which was named after her following her husband's assassination while working with Rachel Lambert Mellon. Her status as a celebrity and popular public figure made the tour of the White House desirable among American viewers, along with the rest of the world. The tour would be filmed and distributed among 106 countries due to the great interest in seeing the film. This was further evident on her trip to Paris with Time magazine referring to her husband as "that fellow who came with her." President Kennedy joked, "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris — and I have enjoyed it!" She became pregnant again in early 1963. She curtailed her official duties and spent most of the summer at the Kennedys' rented home on Squwa Island. There she went into preterm labor on August 7, 1963, giving birth to a second son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy five and a half weeks prematurely. He died two days after birth on August 9. Neither of his lungs were fully developed and he died at Boston Children's Hospital. Assassination of John F. Kennedy The First Lady accompanied President Kennedy during a trip to Dallas, Texas in late-November 1963. The couple flew from Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base to Dallas' Love Field on Air Force One. They were joined by Governor of Texas John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally, the First Lady of Texas. A motorcade was to take the Kennedys and Connallys to a lunch at the Trade Mart. However, shots began to ring out. Jacqueline believed the sound to be a motorcycle backfiring until hearing Governor Connally scream. Within the next few seconds, she leaned towards her husband and then reached across the back of the presidential limousine for something, which was captured on the Zapruder film. After President Kennedy's death that day, she took an active role in planning his funeral and withdrew from the public eye apart from a brief appearance at a ceremony honoring Clint Hill, who had risked his life attempting to shield her and the President by climbing aboard the limousine. Kennedy believed her future had died with her husband. In August 2011, it was reported by Fox News that tapes were being released which Kennedy admitted she believed Lyndon B. Johnson responsible for the death of President Kennedy. It was also reported she had an affair with actor William Holden in retaliation for her husband's cheating.Fox News reports on tapes Life following the Kennedy assassination Kennedy lived in the White House for two weeks following the assassination. She was telephoned on December 7, 1963 by President Johnson, who urged her to return to the White House. She did, but not during his administration. When she made her return it was in February 1971 alongside her children to view the official portraits of President Kennedy and herself. This was during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Kennedy wrote to him and his wife, First Lady Pat Nixon, expressing her happiness in having come and said that one of the days she had most dreaded had turned out the opposite way. In January 1964, Kennedy began writing to Harold Macmillan to tell him how much her husband loved him. However, she proceeded to delve into her own personal sadness and discussed in the writing how much she had felt the world was unfair. Kennedy had her Secret Service drivers to arrange trips where she would never glimpse or see the White House again. Beginning in April 1964 and lasting for several months afterwards, Jacqueline received tennis lessons from Reverend Richard McSorley at the Virginia home of brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy while McSorley also comforted her over the death of her husband. Jacqueline joined Queen Elizabeth at Runnymede, England in 1965 to dedicate the United Kingdom's official memorial to President Kennedy. In May 2014, letters Kennedy had sent to Reverend Joseph Leonard were headed for auction until the Kennedy family objected to their disclosure. They were published by a number of sources, but were eventually returned to the ownership of the Kennedy family, reportedly under daughter Caroline's direction.The anguish of Jackie Kennedy (Opinion) Onassis marriage She came to fear for the lives of herself and her children after the assassination of her brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968. "If they're killing Kennedys, then my children are targets ... I want to get out of this country." On October 20, 1968, Jacqueline married Aristotle Onassis. He was wealthy and able to provide the security and privacy she had sought for her and her children.John F. Kennedy Jr., Heir To a Formidable Dynasty Onassis lost her right to Secret Service protection and her franking privilege. Aristotle Onassis died on March 15, 1975. Later life Becoming a widow for the second time with Onassis' death, Jacqueline accepted a job offer as an editor at Viking Press. Onassis remained the subject of media attention, particularly being followed by Ron Galella. He obtained several photos her during her day-to-day activities. The year after her death, in 1995, her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. allowed Gallela to photograph him at public events. Relationship with children Onassis was involved in the lives of her children, now adults. Onassis announced her daughter Caroline's engagement to Edwin Schlossberg in 1986 and was reported as having never met his father Alfred.A Kennedy Romance It has been reported that her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. married his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in 1996 because she was dominant like his mother. During her lifetime, she supported his relationship with Daryl Hannah. In February 1994, three months before her death, Onassis tried to convince her son to accompany Hannah on a trip to Switzerland.Leigh, p. 309. Death Onassis suffered a fall in November 1993 around the time of the thirtieth anniversary of her first husband's assassination. In January 1994, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Onassis died on May 19, 1994. Her son John F. Kennedy, Jr. announced her death by stating, "My mother died surrounded by her friends and her family and her books, and the people and the things that she loved. She did it in her own way, and on her own terms, and we all feel lucky for that." References Category:Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis